Will Obesity Shorten the American Life Span?

Child Obesity Threatens U.S. Life Span continued...

"But we still have a little time before these children become young
adults with diabetes and start to have heart attacks, stroke, kidney failure,
and increased mortality," he says. "It is a massive tsunami headed for
the United States. One can know it is coming. But if we wait until we see the
ocean level rising over the shore, it will be too late to take action."

In an editorial accompanying the study, University of Pennsylvania
demography expert Samuel H. Preston, PhD, agrees that the Olshansky/Ludwig
team's calculations are accurate. But Preston disagrees with their
conclusion.

"I am optimistic," Preston tells WebMD. "The U.S. lifespan has
shown remarkably steady progress for a century in the U.S. And we have
demonstrated that when we get to a point where lifestyle factors seriously
affect national mortality, we are able to move in the proper
direction."

As an example, Preston points to the epidemic of cigarette smoking that set
back U.S. life expectancy in the 1950s and 1960s. A huge public effort cut
smoking rates -- and Americans' life spans renewed their upward march.

Ludwig hopes Preston is right. But he says the U.S. response to childhood
obesity falls far short of the U.S. antismoking effort.

"We continue to condone a multibillion-dollar campaign by the food
industry to get children to eat the most unhealthy foods imaginable,"
Ludwig says. "We don't adequately fund schools, so principals have to turn
to soda machines in the hallways and fast-food contracts in the cafeterias to
close budget gaps. At the same time, lack of funds forces them to close
afterschool activities and physical education."

The childhood obesity expert calls for a ban on food ads aimed at young
children. He calls for stronger federal funding of schools -- especially for
mandatory physical education programs. And he calls for federal laws to force
insurance companies to pay for the treatment of childhood obesity.

But Ludwig doesn't let families off the hook.

"Parents can turn off the TV and have a family meal once a day together
-- that is at least one opportunity to give children healthy food and model a
healthy lifestyle," he says.